The Crusades

Religion and politics were intertwined with each other in many
European empires in the years leading to the Crusades. The
Christian Church was going through a power struggle which
eventually led to a permanent division which exists till this day.
It was known as the East-West Schism. Also called as the
Schism of 1054, it marked the division of the church into
Roman Catholic churches and Eastern Orthodox churches. This
break in the churches occurred because of a difference in
viewpoints related to various rituals and rules among Christians,
one of the most popular ones being the use of leavened or
unleavened bread for the Eucharist.
This Schism of 1054 reduced the power and authority of the
church among its followers. In an attempt to increase and
reinforce the importance of the church, Pope Gregory VII
started a reformation which would transform the church from a
decentralized religious institution to a centralized one where the
Pope held more power and authority.
This is known as the Gregorian Reform and played a big role
in vesting greater power to the Pope. It led to a change where
all disputes had to be referred to Rome and all appeals were
to go through the Pope as well. This automatically reduced the
amount of power vested on the Bishops. The power struggle
between the Popes and the state in the 11th and 12th
centuries is termed as the Investiture Controversy. The focal
point of the dispute was whether it should be the Pope or the
monarch who should appoint the local church officials which
included the bishops and the abbots.
Many people were against such regulations being set by Pope
Gregory VII. This led to the appointment of an alternative
Pope. Antipope Clement III was the archbishop of Ravenna and
was elected as a Pope in 1080 against Pope Gregory VII.
While he gained a lot of popularity and had a substantial
following in Rome and in other parts of Europe, he is
considered to be an anti-Pope till this day with his body
exhumed and his remains dumped in the Tiber.
All of these events were combined with the constant
advancements of the Muslims in the Holy Land of the
Christians. With the papacy going through a storm and the
Christian authority being in question, it was important for
Christians to protect their Holy Land. While early Arabs had
been tolerant when it came to Christians visiting their holy sites
as pilgrims, the Seljuk Turks who later conquered the regions
started showing no mercy to the pilgrims and began to create
an inhospitable environment for the Christians travelling to the
holy lands.
The Christians found this to be unacceptable and wanted to
recapture their Holy Land. With internal disturbances within the
religion and external conflicts arising from the Muslims, the
Christians felt it was important to stand their ground and
reinforce the importance of the religion among all.